Valérie Gabard has over a decade of experience as a legal adviser for the United Nations in the areas of international criminal law, international humanitarian law, human rights law and transitional justice.

Prior to forming UpRights, Valérie worked for the United Nations International commission of Inquiry for Mali and for the Team of International Experts on the Situation in Kasai (DRC) where she investigated international crimes and gross human rights violations and provided recommendations to improve accountability for crimes committed during the Kasai and the Malian conflicts. Valérie has also worked as a legal officer for Judges of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda as well as investigating Judges at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. Valerie has developed on line trainings including for human rights field staff focused on international criminal justice.

Valérie has a double specialization in criminal law and international public law from the Universities of Bordeaux, Maastricht and Aix-en-Provence. She is fluent in English and French.

Asa Solway is an international lawyer with significant experience advising international organizations, national governments and civil society on a range of international legal issues.

Asa is currently a lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law and has served for over 15 years as an international lawyer advising on multilateral conflict prevention, international law, human rights and access to justice. He has worked with the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and with the United Nations in the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Registry of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone and the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. His publications and legal submissions have considered parallel legal systems, foreign state reprisals, the law of armed conflict, national minorities and modern forms of colonialism

Asa is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley School of Law and a member of the State Bar of California.

David Kinnecome has more than 15 years of experience as an international lawyer providing legal advice to international judges and prosecutors on all aspects of cases involving international crimes and terrorism, from drafting and assessing indictments to appeals from judgement.

From 2006 until the end of 2021, David worked as a lawyer for international and hybrid criminal tribunals. His work includes: providing legal advice and assistance to the trial judges of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, providing legal advice and acting as appeals counsel in the Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and acting as appeals counsel in the Office of the Prosecutor before the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. Prior to his work with international courts, David worked for three years as a litigation associate for law firms in Boston and New York.

David is a graduate of Boston University School of Law and has a Master in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He is a member of the state Bars of Massachusetts and New York.

Marin Van Hove is a lawyer with experience in international criminal law, international humanitarian law and human rights law as well as domestic litigation.

Prior to joining UpRights, Marin worked as assistant legal officer / assistant trial counsel with the Immediate Office of the Prosecutor, Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He worked on conspiracy, terrorism and intentional homicide cases. He also practiced law with a firm in New Zealand, in litigation and dispute resolution. He has undertaken legal projects with the New Zealand Red Cross and Netherlands Red Cross.

Marin is a graduate of Victoria University of Wellington and he has a master of laws in public international law from Leiden University. He is admitted as a barrister and solicitor at the New Zealand bar. He is fluent in English and French.

Ciara Laverty is a legal practitioner and researcher specialised in international criminal law, human rights and transitional justice.

She has published research and worked on advocacy issues in particular in the areas of sexual and reproductive rights and accountability for sexual and gender-based violence. Ciara has previously worked as a researcher and lecturer in international law at Leiden University, as a visiting researcher at the University of California Berkeley, and on protection issues at the International Committee of the Red Cross. She holds a PhD and an Advanced LLM in international law from Leiden University and an MSc in international relations from the University of Edinburgh.

Ayşe Güzel Öztürk is a legal professional with experience in international and regional courts, practicing public international law and human rights law.

Prior to joining UpRights, Ayşe served as a judicial fellow to Judge Patrick Robinson at the International Court of Justice and as a legal trainee to Judge Darian Pavli at the European Court of Human Rights, providing them with legal advice and assistance in the cases pending before the courts. She also worked in a human rights litigation project where she consulted on a third-party intervention before the ECtHR. She interned in the Environmental and International Law Practice Group at the World Bank Legal Vice Presidency in Washington, DC, and participated in a research project with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. She represented Galatasaray University in the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition and coached its team for two years.

Ayşe holds a Bachelor of Laws from Galatasaray University (Turkey) and a Master of Laws in International & Comparative Law from the George Washington University (USA) with a concentration in International Human Rights Law. She is fluent in English, French and Turkish.

Niccolò is a graduate student of the University of Padova where he obtained a Master’s degree in Human Rights and Multi-Level Governance.

Prior to joining UpRights as a research and communication intern, Niccolò has oriented his professional commitments to the areas of journalism and advocacy in the field of human rights by working alongside the team of Koliba, a journalist organisation for the dissemination of information in the matter of international relations, and that of Generation for Rights Over the World (GROW), a student-led think tank whose vocation is to defend human rights through a wide-ranging advocacy effort. He previously interned at Kito ODV an Italian no-profit organisation whose work revolves around emergency-response and humanitarian action specifically in the areas of health and education.

He is a firm believer in the power of advocacy in the promotion and development of human rights and in the need, for human rights mechanisms, to employ novel, inclusive, and stakeholder-oriented solutions to reach their full potential. He is fluent in English, French and Italian.

Hanna is an undergraduate student of the University of Versailles-St Quentin en Yvelines where she obtained a Double Bachelor’s degree in Law & English Literature, Language and Civilisation. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in International law at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Prior to joining UpRights as a Legal intern, Hanna was interning at the office of the director of Judicial Services of the Registry at the ICC. Her interest in International Criminal Law, Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law led her to joining during her studies, both Amnesty International and the student-led organisation « Sorbonne for the United Nations », an organisation promoting International cooperation and human rights through advocacy and training.

She is fluent in French and English.

Professor Kingsley Abbott is an experienced international criminal and human rights lawyer with more than 20 years experience in international non-governmental organisations, the United Nations, academic institutions and domestic legal practice.

He is currently Professor of Practice and Director of the Institute for Commonwealth Studies at the University of London.  Prior to that, he spent over nine years in Thailand where he served the International Commission of Jurists as the Director of Global Accountability and International Justice. During this time, he developed and led numerous human rights and rule of law initiatives in Asia and around the world. He has also worked as a Senior Legal Adviser at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia and as Trial Counsel in the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Hague. He started his career in his home country of Aotearoa New Zealand, where he mainly practised as a criminal barrister under a leading King’s Counsel, appearing in the District Court, High Court and Court of Appeal on numerous matters for both the defence and prosecution.

He was admitted to the New Zealand Bar in 2002 and holds a conjoint degree in law and philosophy from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Lars Burema is an experienced governance professional with over 10 years of experience in promoting participatory and inclusive governance worldwide. 

Lars is currently Team Manager and trainer at The Hague Academy for Local Governance. He designs and delivers training programmes on issues around good local governance to national and local governments as well as international organisations. Lars’ work has primarily focused on Eastern Europe, but he also worked in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining The Hague Academy, Lars worked for the European Centre for Minority Issues in Kosovo, where he managed projects on decentralisation and anti-discrimination and conducted research on issues of language rights and inter-ethnic relations.

Lars is a graduate of University College Utrecht and holds a MSc in Conflict, Security and Development from King’s College London.

Peter Chapman is an experienced attorney and human rights expert working across issues of human rights, technology and social impact.

He is currently an Associate Director & Human Rights and Technology Lead with Article One, a strategy and management consultancy with expertise in human rights, responsible innovation and sustainability. With more than 15 years of experience, he has worked on human rights, governance, and access to justice with Twitter’s Safety, Content and Law Enforcement team, the Open Society Justice Initiative, the World Bank and the Carter Center.

Peter holds degrees in law and international politics from American University’s Washington College of Law (J.D.) and School of International Service (M.A.). Peter is a member of the Bar of New York and the District of Columbia and a Non-Resident Fellow with New York University’s Center on International Cooperation.

Dr. Giulia Pinzauti is an Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden Law School.

Giulia has broad experience in public international law, international criminal law and the law and practice of international courts and tribunals. Prior to joining the Grotius Centre, she served as an associate legal officer at the International Court of Justice (2015-2016) and in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (2012-2014) in The Hague. Giulia also previously worked as part of the legal staff for the Pre-Trial Judge and the Appeals Chamber at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (2011-2012). Formerly, she worked as a teaching and research assistant at the University of Florence (Italy).

Giulia holds a PhD in international law from the European University Institute (2011), as well as a BA and MA from the University of Florence.

Since August 2020, Kounkinè Augustin Somé is a Senior Adviser to the American Bar Association Rule of law Initiative (ABA-ROLI) human rights and access to justice program in Burkina Faso. He is also founder and coordinator of the Ouagadougou-based Citizens’ information and documentation Center (Cidoc).

Augustin has extensive experience in the area of human rights, democratic governance and peace building. He has over 20 years of experience in human rights work in Africa, including 15 years of field work with the United Nations in various senior level roles, where he offered expert advice on capacity development in the area of human rights, rule of law and civic engagement. For example, from 2018 to 2020, he headed the Secretariat of the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry for Mali tasked to investigate international crimes and serious human rights violations committed in Mali since 2012. Before joining the United Nations, Augustin has worked with the Parliament of Burkina Faso as Parliamentary Legal Affairs Officer (1999-2002). He also leads training courses on human rights, peace and security with various training centres in Africa, including the Bamako-based peacekeeping training school (EMPABB), the International Peace Support Training Center in Nairobi (Kenya), the Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA), just to mention a few.

Augustin holds a LLB in public Law from the University of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), a Master in Human rights from the Universities of Nantes and Paris XII (France), an LLM in Human rights and democratization in Africa from Pretoria-American University in Cairo (Egypt). Augustin was awarded the Vera Chirwa Award in 2013. The award was instituted by the University of Pretoria (Center for Human Rights) to recognize alumnus/alumna who best embodied the principles of the Masters’ Programme in his or her subsequent career by “making a difference” to the protection of human rights or the strengthening of democratisation in Africa.

Kate Vigneswaran is the Head of the International Accountability Platform for Belarus (IAPB), an NGO consortium of 13 Belarusian and international human rights organisations that have joined forces to collect, verify, and preserve information and evidence of gross human rights violations allegedly committed by Belarusian authorities.

Kate has more than 18 years of experience as an international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law expert. Prior to the IAPB, she worked as senior consultant and expert for the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and UN Office on Drugs and Crime. She also worked in senior positions with numerous human rights NGOs including Global Rights Compliance, the International Commission of Jurists and Fortify Rights. Her responsibilities include documenting and reporting on serious human rights violations and international crimes, working on accountability related issues and building the capacity of justice system actors and civil society. From 2010 to 2016, Kate worked for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Kate is a qualified lawyer in Australia and holds a Master of Laws from Harvard University (USA) and a Bachelor of Laws from Queensland University of Technology (Australia)